One of the most commonly heard pushbacks to veganism is that, it’s “expensive”. What doesn’t get talked about, however, is the fact that meat is heavily subsidised, and wouldn’t be nearly as cheap if it weren’t.
That was my entry point to today’s rabbit hole. But the more I dug into it, the more anguish I began to feel for not just the meat industrial complex, but the food system in its entirety. I didn’t think that something as seemingly uplifting as agricultural subsidies could be so stark in reality.
This Way Down the Rabbit Hole
- Kimberly Amadeo on The Balance (2020), "Farm Subsidies with Pros, Cons, and Impact" https://www.thebalance.com/farm-subsidies-4173885#how-farm-subsidies-affect-the-economy
- Selam Gebrekidan, Matt Apuzzo and Benjamin Novak on The New York Times (2019), "The Money Farmers: How Oligarchs and Populists Milk the E.U. for Millions"
- https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/03/world/europe/eu-farm-subsidy-hungary.html
- Jayati Ghosh on The Guardian (2013), "Why farming subsidies still distort advantages and cause food insecurity" https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2013/nov/27/farming-subsidies-distort-advantages-food-insecurity
- Congressional Research Service (2019), "Federal Crop Insurance: Special Crops" https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R45459.html#_Toc535225929
- Brian Barth on the Modern Farmer (2019), "Congress Finally Passed a New Farm Bill and It Continues to Pay Homage to the Cult of Corn and Soy"
- https://modernfarmer.com/2015/03/specialty-crops-refer-to-weird-things-like-fruits-and-vegetables/
- Family Farm Action Alliance (2020), "The Feed-Meat Complex: Unpacking the Truth About How Big Meat Pockets Billions in Farm Subsidies"
- https://farmactionalliance.org/2020/11/16/thefeedmeatcomplex/
